A House of Worship

Okay, you have packed away the hymnals and started using slides; rolled the piano and organ into storage; found a
decent keyboard with more sounds and effects than anyone will EVER use (on Your platform, anyway);
found two or three people with their own gear who can play guitar (plus the twenty or so people who volunteered to play the drums).
You've gotten stage style lights, a dimmer pack, and a lighting control board, and pared back the choir to
three or four small groups for back-up vocals.

So now you have a worship band, and they sound pretty good! Now comes the juggling act that no contemporary Church magazine or blog ever
prepared you for ~ the battle of "the Sound."

On one front there are the parishioners, which have three distinct groups; the "It's TOO LOUD" crowd, the "It's too quiet" clutch, and the
"It's just right" cadre.
The second front consists of the worship team members, who "express concern" over [insert instrument here] drowning out everything else.
A third front is the sound tech volunteers who report that the volume has to be in the "nearly-bleeding-ears" range just to be able to balance
out the [insert instrument here].

What is a leader to do?

Even though throwing in the towel looks inviting, giving up is not in your personal Exhaustive Concordance. Nor is it in your nature
to start over from scratch, especially when people ARE worshipping!

So...
...how does a leader keep the peace while honoring God? And what is the answer to the question, Who Controls the Sound?

The answer to the original question is YOU!

And HOW you do it is with an Isolation Cabinet (PIC)™ from dB down...

Touring Series

Gigging Series

Not Just "Another" Isolation Cabinet

Guitar Isolation Cabinets are nothing new. There are several already on the market from other vendors that
share the same basic design; an external speaker, encased in a sound deadening enclosure, with one or multiple
microphones mounted inside to transfer the sound to an external mixing source.

This design is a good start to controlling stage volume, but it does have some inherent problems.

First, it relies on a speaker that is most likely different than the built-in speaker in the Combo Amp. This
non-native speaker naturally produces different tonalities than the built-in speaker, either being darker or
brighter. Another reason for the tone difference is the design of the case where this external speaker is
mounted. Restricted air movement in the case makes it harder for the speaker to produce sound, which
suppresses some frequency ranges.

The second problem with the typical Iso Cab design is microphone placement. There are currently three
schools of thought on the number and placement of mics for guitar amplifiers.

The 'One Mic' school advocates a single mic placed at close proximity and pointing into the speaker
at a spot that captures a particular sound.

The 'Two Mic' school supports the use of two mics with both either in front of the speaker or one in
front and one behind, again at close proximity and pointing into the cone, to capture two different tones from
the speaker.

The 'Multiple Mic' school takes the 'Two Mic' school of thought and adds more mics to capture even more
different tonalities. This school uses mics placed both in front of and behind the speaker at close
proximity and pointing into the cone.

The problem is finding that target spot (or spots) that will capture the best overall sound.

The dB down PIC™ difference

The isolation cabinets by dB down are designed and hand-crafted in the U.S. by a guitar player and a FOH sound
engineer to simplify sound and micing problems on stage. Iso Cabs are nothing new, but what we have done is
nothing short of revolutionary!

dB down Iso Cabs not only kill the on-stage volume by 20-30 dB, they give you the ability to do what has not
been possible on stage until now - completely isolated distance micing. Distance micing is how Alan Parsons
recorded David Gilmour's amps on the album "Dark Side of the Moon."

With distance micing you are capturing more frequencies from the speaker because the mic is picking up sound
from the whole speaker, not just a few square inches of the speaker as you do with the traditional one-
(or multi-) mic placement paradigm.

All our PICs™ incorporate Focused Sound Technology (FST)™. So now, instead of pointing the microphone at the
amplifier, you're pointing the mic toward the reflector. By doing this, we have achieved a distance between
the mic and speaker of 16"-18". Not only that, we've essentially created a microphone the diameter of your
built-in speaker (or speakers, as the case may be)!

Just think of it, no more mic placement issues. No more frustrating church services because the amp is too
loud. What about having to set-up and tear-down quickly at a festival? Or how about that gig at a small venue
where the rest of the band has to be balanced out to the volume of the guitar?

Our cabinets are the answer you've been looking for. They are quite literally Plug and Play!

For guitarists, you can show up to the gig with your cabinet, plug in the mic cord to the external XLR connector,
turn on your amp, and you are ready to play! And the best part is you shouldn't have to turn down your volume.

For the sound tech, after the guitarist is set-up, place the appropriately sized Gigging Series cabinet in front of
the amp, plug in the mic cable to the external XLR connector, and you are ready to start mixing!

Not only do our Iso Cabs provide a great reduction in the dB levels, but because of FST™, the entire frequency
range is boosted, allowing more headroom on the mixing desk and greater freedom to the sound tech to let the
guitarist slam out that screaming solo.

Their IsoCab

dB down PIC™

Speaker Type

External / Non-Native Speaker

Combo Amp Native Speaker

Number of Mics

One, Two, or Many

Only One Needed

Mic Orientation

Pointing Toward Speaker

Pointing Toward FST™

Mic Proximity to Speaker

Close to Speaker

Up to 16" Away

% of Speaker being Mic'd

From < 0.5% up to 2%

100%

dB Reduction

Up to 20 dB

From 20-30 dB Consistantly

Cooling

N/A

Active Ventilation** Available on the Touring Series cabinets

Our Artists

Shane Rootes - Touring Series

"Ever grateful to dB down for manufacturing a world
class product. Every venue I play brings with it unique
challenges relating to how 'live' the room is. dB down's
iso cab allows me to get the sound I need from the
tubes doing what they do best without my amp volume
being overly loud stage wise. I can't say enough about
this great product. If you want to play a tube amp
where the tubes are really working... then you need dB
down's iso cab."

Nu-Blu - Acoustic Image case

Bluegrass artists Daniel and Carolyn Routh of the group Nu-Blu
dropped by our booth at NAMM and had a unique request;
Could we build a road case for an upright bass amplifier? They
not only needed the case to protect Carolyn's Acoustic Image
amplifier while in transit, but also have it designed to isolate
the amplifier from the stage during a show. It seems, a
number of the stages they play on are raised platforms built of
wood with no insulation underneath. So when her amp is
placed on stage, the down-throw speaker in the amp causes
the stage to reverberate and drown out the rest of the
instruments.

Working with Nu-Blu, we designed the case with a unique
flip-over lid for the amp to sit in that both raises the amplifier and isolates it from the stage floor. This
eliminates the hollow reverberations from the stage and allows the whole band to deliver some kickin'
bluegrass, like this.

Carl Butler's Gospel Lounge - Gigging Series

Wait a minute - WHAT? A Church in a Lounge? Where artists
come in from all over the country to play bluegrass, country, blues, and
a little rock and roll? Is this some kind of joke?

No, it's Knucklehead's Saloon in Kansas City MO, home to Carl
Butler's Gospel Lounge. Because it is such an intimate
venue, Carl and his sound guy were having some volume and
balance problems. We brought out a Gigging Series PICTM to
demo it's capabilities, and they loved it! Prior to this, the
sound tech told us he had "never been able to mix Carl in the
room." Now, not only are they delivering some hot licks and Good News, we've helped them control the volume
and find the balance they wanted.

The Line Up

All dB down products are designed and made in the United States of America

Touring Series

This is the original dB down iso cab, designed for the touring professional.

Low-Noise Active Ventilation system to draw cool air in and push tube heated air out.

Ventilation chamber is isolated from the sound chamber.

Provides 20-30 dB noise reduction when closed.

Heavy Duty casters, handles, and latches.

FST™, mic mount, and external XLR connector included, mic optional†.

Gigging Series

A lighter and more compact version of the Touring Series, so it's easy to put in the back seat along with your amp, pedals, and guitar
and head out to the gig.

Model P-110 - sized for an amp with a single 10" speaker.

Model P-112 - sized for an amp with a single 12" speaker.

30% lighter construction.

Provides 20-30 dB noise reduction.

Comes with our FST™ and external XLR connector.

DOES NOT come with a microphone†.

* No case or enclosure can protect against damage or destruction in all possible circumstances (including puncture, fire, flood or submersion,
acts of God, drops from any height, etc.). In such events, there is no guarantee or warranty, expressed or implied, against damage to any
item housed or stored inside a dB down PIC™.

† dB down highly recommends the Heil Sound PR31-BW microphone for use in all our cabinets.

Contact Us

Do you have a question, or would you like some more information about our products?
Just shoot us an e-mail and we will get back with you as soon as possible.

Trent Canupp - trentcanupp@gmail.com

William Greene - wmfgreene4@gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you and working with you so you can have 'Your Sound, Your Way'!